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The nation today celebrates the 36th anniversary of its glorious victory over Pakistani occupation forces in the nine-month Liberation War with the demand for trial of the war criminals gathering momentum.

Bangladesh Better Business Forum in its first meeting yesterday decided to form working committees on six areas to recommend measures for improving the country's business environment and help the economy grow.

The sector commanders of the Liberation War have demanded drawing up a list of collaborators of the Pakistan occupation forces alongside preparing a complete and authentic list of the freedom fighters.

World Bank Vice-president Praful Patel yesterday said the issue of climate change will be mainstreamed into Bangladesh's development agenda while the bank will provide $325 million to Sidr relief and rehabilitation programmes.

The Sector Commanders' Forum and pro-Liberation War political and social organisations will boycott the Victory Day reception party at Bangabhaban hosted today by President Iajuddin Ahmed and his wife, protesting invitation to anti-Liberation War forces.

The final draft of the coal policy discourages aggressive development of the country's coal sector and places national bodies into the driving seat to lead the sector by pushing private and foreign investors into the backseat.

Demanding trial of the war criminals, senior BNP leader Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan yesterday said that the government should take initiative to try the war criminals, as it would not be possible for any individual to file cases now.

Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan and China and fresh outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.

Editorial

We remember the historic victory the Bengali nation achieved on this day in 1971. A recapitulation of it pacquires increased intensity when we recall the many tribulations and the immensity of suffering that went into our national triumph. The emergence of the sovereign state of Bangladesh in 1971 was not a run of the mill affair brought about by political negotiations around a table. It was an achievement arising out of a concerted war of national liberation, in which tens of thousands of men and women in the Mukti Bahini in particular and the people of Bangladesh in general put their lives on the line as they sought to send the Pakistan occupation army and its local collaborators packing. It was a war forced on us and over the nine months of it 3,000,000 of our fellow Bengalis were to die; 200,000 women would be raped by Pakistan’s soldiers; 10,000,000 would seek refuge in India and whole villages and towns would be left ravaged. We opted to hit back, to let the enemy know that the country belonged to us and that sooner rather than later his stranglehold on Bangladesh would go.

If anything, the way RAJUK has gone about the business of demolishing the Rangs Bhaban exposes grave shortcomings of government agencies in undertaking a sensitive and delicate operation demanding maximum precision such as demolition of a high-rise building. It is a classic example of a shoddy and clumsy work, undertaken without detailed planning and adequate precaution and safety measures

I listened to it spellbound. It was a brief, mesmerising news bulletin announcing the fall of Dhaka. The broadcast was loud and clear: Dhaka had fallen and there was a ceasefire in the eastern front under local arrangements.

The nation celebrates today the 36th Victory Day for paying tributes to the untold number of martyrs who sacrificed their lives for liberating our motherland from the clutches of Pakistani occupation forces. Freedom had dawned on this day 36 years back at the end of a nine-month long war against an enemy who did not desist from committing genocide to retain their repression and exploitation over the people of this land.

There is a school of thought that not only describes three great civilisations -- Greek, Egyptian and Roman -- as slavery based civilisations, but has also ascribed their eventual demise on being based only on sword and not on values.

Chittagong's seam bowlers made it difficult for Rajshahi to retain the top spot in the four-day table of the National Cricket League. The visitors came back strongly from their brittle batting to take the upper hand at the end of the second day of their eighth round game yesterday.

Fresh from a glorious 169 in the Bangalore Test against Pakistan, Yuvraj Singh is looking ahead to what he hopes will be an equally successful tour of Australia. The pitches will be bouncier, and the quality of the opposition bowlers will be a lot better, but Yuvraj is confident he, and the rest of the Indian team, will cope well.

Bangladesh Under-19s bounced back strongly to take the lead again in the five-match one-day series against Sri Lanka Under-19s when they secured a 44-run victory against the visitors in the third game at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra yesterday.

Fabio Capello was appointed as England coach last night following the conclusion of negotiations between his legal team and Football Association officials at Soho Square. The Italian, the 15th man and second foreigner to do the job since the war, will begin his 6.5m pounds-a-year, four-and-a-half-year contract on January 7 and will meet the media on Monday.

Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas has suggested the lack of English players trying to improve themselves abroad may be just as harmful to the English game as the steady influx of foreigners in the Premier League.

Irfan Pathan has said he can be good allrounder but he sees himself as a bowler who can bat. "I'm happy to be able to contribute with the bat," Pathan told the Times of India. At the end of the day, if you have scored runs for your team, it helps your bowling to a great extent. I'm grateful to God for giving me the chance to score that hundred against Pakistan. I really cherished the moment."

Veteran South African all-rounder Shaun Pollock sent the West Indians crashing to a narrow defeat against a Makhaya Ntini Invitation XI in a rain-affected opening match of their tour at Buffalo Park Friday.

Australian spin legend Shane Warne will be the highest paid cricketer in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sponsored Indian Premier League (IPL) with a staggering 400,000 dollars in his kitty.

Bangladesh Rifles emerged champions in the Victory Day Kabaddi Competition outplaying Bangladesh Army by 34-19 points with two creditable `lona' in the final at the Kabaddi Stadium here today (Saturday).

The Indian commercial vehicle manufacturing segment is set to perk up with two major joint ventures involving two leading domestic companies and as many multinational auto giants being announced in four days.

The European Union economy will continue to grow despite recent market turbulence because its fundamentals are strong, EU leaders said Friday, but they stressed the need for reforms to help the bloc compete globally.

Chief of Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed yesterday urged the government to rebury all the seven Bir Shreshthas in a single compound so that people could pay their homage to all the valiant freedom fighters at a time.

Awami League (AL) yesterday hoped that the caretaker government (CG) would initiate the trial process of the war criminals, while BNP observed that the next political government should start the process, as the main agenda of this government is to hold a free and fair election.

A joint meeting of editors of newspapers and news agencies and the leaders of Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SSKOP) yesterday called for formation of a committee to review the 6th Wage Board Award for journalists and employees in the newspaper industry.

al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri lashed out at last month's US-hosted Middle East peace conference, calling it a betrayal of the Palestinians, in an audiotape broadcast on an Islamist website on Friday.

Arts & Entertainment

With great risk veteran photographer Naibuddin Ahmed captured scathing images of brutality and how people survived the terror unleashed by the Pakistani army in 1971 that helped publicise the war to the world. These images now survive as documents of the Liberation War.

Popular music composer Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul is renowned for his evergreen compositions. In his illustrious career, Bulbul has composed songs for over 350 movies. He is the lyricist of most of these songs. He has composed and written many remarkable adhunik and patriotic songs. His contribution to the music industry has earned him several awards including the National Award, the President's Award and the 'Shikha Anirban' award' -- the highest honour conferred by the Bangladesh Armed Forces. Bulbul has won the Bachsas Award 11 times.

To mark the Martyred Intellectuals' Day, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) arranged a discussion and cultural programme at the National Theatre Stage of BSA on December 14. The cultural programme featured recitation, music and drama.

In our article titled “Victory Day celebration” published on December 14, in the Culture Page, the word 'just' was inadvertently dropped. The text should have read …“In his speech Colonel (Retd) Kazi Nuruzzaman said, “Our Liberation War was not just a fight against the Pakistan Army...” We sincerely regret the error.

OP-ED

For the people who were holed up in Dhaka on December 16, 1971, the memories of the Victory Day are more of relief from days of nightmarish fear and deep anxiety over an uncertain outcome than joy of victory.

It was early March 1971 when songs became part of the Bengali political consciousness. As the non-violent non-cooperation movement launched by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to counter the conspiracies of the Pakistan ruling junta against popular democratic aspirations progressed, Dhaka Radio introduced Bengalis to a riveting song.

On December 11, the nation with great pride welcomed home the remains of Birshrestha Hamidur Rahman. More than 36 years after Hamidur sacrificed his life for the cause of country and its people, he returned to the liberated Bangladesh that he did not live to see. We laud the government for their initiative in bringing back the remains of this glorious son of the soil who, along with his other six birshrestha comrades, and the millions of others gave their lives in 1971.